top | item 21308276

(no title)

asr | 6 years ago

This makes no sense. Phishing comes from phreak + fishing, but the "ph" in phreak is already from the word phone (phone + freak) -- so the ph in "phishing" already comes from the word phone! The telephone version of phishing should be... "phishing."

But thanks for the explanation.

discuss

order

chrisweekly|6 years ago

Disclaimer: I'm not a linguist, and this word was new to me. FWIW, I inferred something like "v for voice interface". IMHO the "ph" in "phishing", despite the etymology, has lost any meaningful semantic connection to "phone" per se. So this new term might seem redundant or circular in its derivation, while still being a valid / useful addition to the lexicon. (shrug)